We've all heard how important it is to set goals but if you're like me, in the past you didn't always reach them. This year I've started to get closer to reaching more goals than ever before. So what changed?
1. WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS I wrote my goals down (actually I posted many of them on our 'family' blog, but the more personal ones I wrote down.) I read from Mike Boyle's Secrets of Success that writing down your goals will help you achieve them, but much like him I kind of laughed and was thought 'like that will really help'. Well it did help because it kept me accountable.
2. TELL ANYONE WHO WILL LISTEN AND ACTIVELY REMIND YOU OF YOUR GOALS I told my husband and anyone else who would listen. This also kept me accountable because all the people I told seemed to not forget and asked me how I was doing achieving them.
3. SET DATES I set dates. Once I set the dates I put them on my 'Google Calendar' which would then send me email reminders based on the time intervals I put in. Not only did this remind me of when I wanted to obtain my goals it was also a bit of a kick in the bum to get me jump started if I faltered.
4. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH POSITIVE INFLUENCES I surrounded or tried to surround myself with more positive people. We all get stuck in ruts and focus more on negative things then positive, but I found if I surrounded myself by people who were more positive it seemed to help me out a bit more!
5. BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF I feel like the hardest thing with any goal is being honest with yourself about the steps your taking to achieve the goal and the actual progress you are making. For instance, I LOVE peanut butter, bread and pasta. I know that if I want to lose body fat that I need to cut down on all of those. I am down to at least one serving of bread, pasta or peanut butter daily without working out. That should be a zero with no cheats of eating bites of my sons leftover pasta, muffin, etc, but it's not. This I am not always honest with myself about when I take my measurements and look at my progress but I'm working on it.
6. IF YOU FALTER DON'T QUIT Many of us will cheat on a diet or miss a days workout and then think, well I screwed up, now I'm going to eat a pint of ice cream because I've already messed up why not just throw the day out. Well, that's not really the steps we should take. Get yourself back on track as soon as possible, even it it means making up for it by having a healthier lunch, dinner, snack, etc. If you miss your workout either try to get that one in another day or make sure you get back on schedule the following week.
7. ASK FOR HELP I know asking for help is probably one of the hardest things to do and is engrained in us since we are infants that we can do it ourselves. One thing I've learned over the last year after having a child is that sometimes we really do need help whether or not we want to admit it! Sometimes asking for help is as simple as asking some one to workout with you that way you will each push each other along and keep one another accountable. Or finding some one who has done it before and asking them how they achieved their goal. Never be afraid to ask for help no matter how hard it is!
Setting and achieving goals is not only part of reaching your fitness goals but is part of your everyday life. I hope that these simple things will help you to set, achieve and maintain your fitness and life goals in the upcoming holiday months and in to the new year!
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